An ode to Laksa Johor

 

Yes, I am from Johor, but please do not equate me with the obsessed Johoreans who go about screaming “Bangsa Johor” and holding up their hands showing the “0-1” sign.

I’m more chill than that! But don’t get me wrong, I am still proud of my Johor heritage and I love my home state. I’m just not obsessed.

Every time I go back to Johor Bahru, even if it is for the weekend, I swear that I put on anywhere between two to four kilogrammes of body weight.

The amount of Johor food that I try to stuff into my body is just obscene. Sometimes, it can even induce a food migraine which can get pretty bad.

Honestly, living in Kuala Lumpur, it isn’t easy getting authentic Johor food. Most of it is catered to a more generic palette.

It is the same for most out-of-KL cuisines. You won’t be able to get authentic Kelantanese food or Sabahan food in Kuala Lumpur. It’s just too watered down.

But every now and then, when the craving comes, I’ll still eat out but there are only a few places that I’m confident enough to get Johor food that tastes almost authentic.

There are a few places where I can find good Johor mee rebus in Sri Hartamas and Shah Alam. You can also find good briyani gam in the Bangi area.

But then, there is the laksa Johor. This is a special dish that nobody really eats outside of the home. Even in Johor, most people wouldn’t eat it in a restaurant or stall.

Of course, you can find it being sold, but it isn’t as widespread as other Johor dishes like mee rebus or nasi ambeng.

It is a traditional dish that is cooked at home, and although it has quite a standard recipe, different families have different adaptations of it.

The standard ingredients are spaghetti, fish, curry powder and other condiments like cucumber, bean sprouts, onion and sambal belacan.

In my family, laksa Johor is the staple Hari Raya dish and the recipe has been passed down from my paternal grandmother to my father’s eldest sister (who I affectionately call Mak Non), who in turn passed it down to my mother.

Nobody makes laksa Johor as good as Mak Non and my mother. Nobody!

They have customised it too. No other fish is used other than ikan parang. Some people use ikan tenggiri or even kembung. That is all crap! The consistency and proportion of spices are a delicate balance too and the sambal belacan is of utmost importance. It can make or break the dish!

However, the sad part of this is that Mak Non is getting quite old. She’s still relatively healthy but pushing into her 90s, she is weak. She has “retired” from making laksa Johor.

My mother who is pushing into her 70s has decided that last year was going to be the last time she makes it too.

Tedious work

I can’t blame them. It is a very tedious dish to prepare. It actually takes several days. Ikan parang is a fish that has a gazillion bones and to make the laksa gravy, you need to debone the entire fish and then blend it. You have to do this several times over!

The condiments aren’t that easy to prepare too. The cucumber needs to be sliced thinly. The bean sprouts need to have the ends picked off.

The chai poh and daun selasih are easier to prepare because you just serve them as is. But then there is the sambal belacan and that needs mathematical precision in the ingredients that go into it.

Honestly, when I was growing up, I never knew how tedious it was to prepare. Being the privileged son, I just knew that on Hari Raya morning, I will be greeted by laksa Johor at the dining table as soon as we all get home from the mosque after Hari Raya prayers.

But things have changed. Last year, my wife (who isn’t a Johorean) decided to learn how to make laksa Johor. So, she sat down with my mother and they started discussing the recipe. I would sit together and I finally realised how difficult it is to make it.

It’s no wonder that laksa Johor isn’t widely available commercially. It’s just not viable. The amount of labour that goes into it is only something a dedicated mother would give. It is truly a dish that has to be prepared with love and dedication.

This Hari Raya would mark the second year that my wife is making laksa Johor for the family. It still isn’t exactly the same as how my mother does it, but it is getting very close. But anyway, it doesn’t matter. Every wife and mother will adapt it to their own style.

Passing on a tradition

What matters is that a family tradition gets passed down, and new elements get created too. For the past two years, the entire family has gotten involved in making the laksa Johor and it is something we all look forward to doing.

My wife and I would take the blended ikan parang flesh in huge plastic containers and slowly pick out the bones while watching Netflix.

Our two daughters are the ones who usually help to slice and compartmentalise the condiments. Our youngest son’s role is to get in everyone’s way!

Although my mother doesn’t do the cooking anymore, she is available 24 hours a day either via text, phone call or a visit for advice.

The conversations that we have had has been great too. She would tell us funny and interesting stories about my aunt and my maternal grandmother.

We laugh about how laksa Johor, although a so-called traditional Johor dish, uses Italian spaghetti as its base noodle. How did that ever happen, no one will ever know. But that combination of Italian and Johorean sure does taste good.

In my family, the laksa Johor is also something that brings people together. My mother, who is Chinese, used to have all our relatives from her side come over on Hari Raya and everyone would bond over the laksa. The laksa which my Johor Bugis aunty taught my mother to do.

And since laksa Johor isn’t commonly available like Penang laksa, they all look forward to having it every year. But since the Covid-19 pandemic, our large Hari Raya gatherings (and Chinese New Year ones) have been greatly reduced.

Hopefully, we will start gathering like we used to again.

So, as politicians squabble over how important or excessive national open houses are during festive seasons, I would like to just take the opportunity to give an ode to laksa Johor and wish all Malaysians, no matter what race or religion you are, Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri. - Mkini

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ZAN AZLEE is a writer, documentary film-maker, journalist and academic. The Sheraton move really frustrated him but maybe after November 2022, he can start feeling better again. Visit fatbidin.com to view his work.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT